Festival co-founder and Programming Director: Dean Bertram

Dean is a freelance writer and filmmaker. A fan of the fantastic genres since he was toddler, Dean's avid consumption of cinematic horror, fantasy and sci-fi lead, perhaps inevitably, to him founding Sydney's A Night of Horror International Film Festival and then Fantastic Planet Film Festival. He has a PhD in history from the University of Sydney. He co-produced A NIGHT OF HORROR: VOLUME 1 with Enzo Tedeschi in 2015, and is the writer and producer of the upcoming feature VIRGIN FOREST, from director and festival alumnus Kerry Prior.

Technical Director: Enzo Tedeschi

Enzo is an award-winning Australian filmmaker, co-founder of Distracted Media and founder of Deadhouse Films. Along with Julian Harvey, he wrote and produced the horror thriller The Tunnel, epic online series Event Zero, and the science fiction series Airlock.

Dean Bertram (far right) and Enzo Tedeschi (far left) introduce some of the short filmmakers at A Night of Horror's Australian Horror Gala 2014.

Event Director: Craig Walker

Craig brings a wealth of experience to A Night Of Horror. He has been attending many years of ANOH, as well as 20+ years at Flickerfest and The Sydney Film Festival, he has been performing in theatre, TV and film, for over 40 years, as well as working in various major events since 1986 which means that there's a wealth of experience for him to choose from. In that time he's been an Actor, Performer, Singer, Musician, Director, Special Events Manager, Stage Manager, and all around good-guy (mostly)... With experiences ranging from repeat appearances with Keith Smith (The Pied Piper) at the age of 6, Craig gravitated to the theatre in both school productions and outside in the professional theatre, working with such Australian luminaries as Sandy Harbutt (Stone). Later, gaining experience in radio announcing, both through formal study and experience, Craig appeared on a number of stations as an announcer, whilst never giving up his stage and TV work. Craig has appeared on TV and stage alongside many Australian (and international) talents, he was in the original promotional casts of both Rocky Horror and Blues Brothers, has written and directed productions for theatre restaurant, and has appeared in a range of TV shows, as well as short and feature films.

Left to right, some of the key event team at the 2016 festivals: Barbara Chmiel, Jess Burrell, Leanne Mangan, Craig Walker

A NIGHT OF HORROR programming consultants

Steven Wallace

Steven graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in media studies in 2002. Since then he has directed award-winning shorts and music spots. He is an alumni of the Marche du Film’s producer’s workshop at the Cannes Film Festival. Most recently he is a contributing partner at a content and branding consultancy whose clients include Warner Brothers, Atlantic Records and Gretch Guitars.

Bryn Tilly

Bryn originates from Wellington, New Zealand, but has been based in Sydney for the past 17 years. He started attending film festivals in the mid-80s, and worked at the classic cinemas The Embassy (which later hosted the World Premieres of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien trilogies and King Kong) and The Paramount (where Ant Timpson first held The Incredibly Strange Film Festival). He studied film criticism, analysis, and production at Victoria University 1988-92. Bryn worked as a production trainee on Peter Jackson’s cult classic Braindead (1991). And was the resident film critic for the City Voice newspaper 1993-1997. In Sydney, he was the resident film reviewer for Revolver Magazine 1998-2002, and was employed as the film reviewer for rushTV.com, and provided film reviews for DVD Now magazine. Was editor of Horrorphile.net 2006 – 2012, and launched Cultprojections.com in 2013.

Wayne Clingman

Wayne started his trajectory into indie cinema with Amiga Video Toasters in the 90's. He has worked in cable television, and helped write/pass the first Wisconsin Film Incentives. He was the founder and director of It Came From Lake Michigan Film Festival 2006-2008. Waynenow works as a media consultant and also host's the always entertaining Indy Film Wisconsin Podcast. He would love for you to connect with him on Twitter: @IndyFilmWis

Steven Wallace (Left) and Bryn Tilly (Right) at the 2013 Festival.

FANTASTIC PLANET programming team

Head of International Shorts: Sevé Schelenz

Sevé is a feature film director, writer, editor and producer. His first independent feature was the horror film SKEW, which screened in over 50 film festivals, won several awards and has been distributed in over 10 countries. His follow-up film was the horror feature PEELERS, which followed it's predecessors success with numerous awards from over 65 festivals and world-wide distribution. Schelenz has been working in the industry for over 15 years and has 60+ credits to his name in both television and film. He also loves brownies, baseball and has been known to fleece film festival directors in pool games.

Pablo Piccioli

Pablo might be an over-worked computer programming geek by day, but by night he is a genre cinema fiend who you're likely to find half-crazed, wearing sun-glasses, drinking whiskey and watching a marathon of obscure Italian giallos or 1950s westerns. When he was based in Sydney, he was the heart and soul of A Night of Horror Film Festival. Loved by festival guests - the "head of security" for the fest's higher-profile filmmakers - and the fest team member most likely to buy you several shots of tequila and get you into the type of trouble only he could get you out of. Now, having returned to his native Uruguay, he remains an integral part of the fest's programming team, even though his physical presence is sorely missed.

Sevé Schelenz at Sitges 2016.

Poster, program, and art design: Martin Vine

Martin Vine is a Sydney-based graphic designer and author with a history in magazine publishing. In between his full-time job designing interactive iPad magazines for Bauer Media, Martin is working on Book III of his self-published fantasy/adventure trilogy – The Waking World (shameless plug: books I and II out now on iBooks and Kindle! https://www.facebook.com/HopskotchAndTheGoldenCicada). He recently blew his chance at the Father Of The Year Award by allowing his thirteen-year-old daughter to become addicted to The Walking Dead.

Launch Pad interviews: Simon Foster

With close to 30 years film industry experience, Simon’s career includes long stints with Village Roadshow, Columbia Tri-Star Films, 20th Century Fox and ‘The Showbusiness Bible’, Variety. A full-time freelance film journalist, his work has been published in Inside Film, The Big Issue, FilmInk, Empire, Screen Hub, Digital Retribution and SBS Movies. Currently, he balances his role as Managing Editor of SCREEN-SPACE, a site that provides an insider’s perspective on world cinema he founded three years ago, with broadcast slots on Radio 2UE and ABC 92.5FM, as well as a Content Development Producer role at the recently launched online initiative, Meet The Filmmakers. A member of the Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA), he has served as jury member for The Sydney Underground Film Festival, A Night of Horror Film Festival, Fantastic Planet Film Festival, the Melbourne Film Festival sidebar Telescope, The Byron Bay International Film Festival and the Dungog Film Festival.

James Naylor writer/director of A DARK MATTER (left) and Simon Foster from Screen Space (right) during a Q&A at Fantastic Planet Film Festival 2013.

Craig Walker (right) with Robert Gadsbey at the 2014 festival info desk.